OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 9 



Family COLUMBINE. Genus COLUMBA. 



ROCK DOVE. 



COLUMBA LIVIA. Bonnat. 

 PLATE II., Fig. 2. 



Columba livia, Bonnat. Tabl. Bncycl. Method, i. p. 227 (1790 ex Brisson) ; Macgill. 

 Brit. B. i. p. 268 (1837) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 11, pi. 457 (1879) ; Yarrell, Brit. 

 B. ed. 4, iii. p. 13 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 405 (1884) ; Salvadori, 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxi. p. 252 (1893) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. p. 348 (1893) ; 

 Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xxx. (1895) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 158, 

 pi. 47 (1896) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iv. p. 247 (1897). 



Geographical distribution. British . The Eock Dove is found 

 throughout the rocky coasts of the British Islands, extending to St. Kilda. 

 Colonies of white-rumped Doves occur in many inland districts on rocks and the 

 sides of quarries, and are unquestionably composed of tame or domestic Doves 

 which have become feral. Foreiyn : Palaearctic region. Wild birds are 

 apparently confined to the coasts ; inland colonies are descendants of tame birds. 

 The Eock Dove is a resident on the Faroes, but only one breeding-place is known in 

 Scandinavia, in the Stavanger Fjord. It breeds in the Pyrenees and in the 

 Sierra Nevada, as well as on all the Atlantic Islands, including St. Helena. It is 

 a resident on the rock-bound coasts of the Mediterranean, Black and Eed Seas, 

 and on the mountain chains adjacent. Feral Eock Doves, intricately intermingled 

 with tame birds, are found from Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia, through Asia 

 Minor and Persia, Beloochistan, Cashmere, and the Altai, across South Siberia 

 to North China and Japan, examples from the latter country being very dark 

 in colour (Seebohm). 



Allied forms. Columba intermedia, an inhabitant of India and Ceylon. 

 Differs from the Eock Dove in having the rump dark. G. rupestris, an 

 inhabitant of the Eastern Palaearctic region, from Turkestan to North China, 

 and from the Altai to the Himalayas. Differs from the Eock Dove in having a 

 broad subterminal white band across the tail. All these Doves interbreed 

 wherever their range impinges. 



Habits. The Eock Dove, the original stock from which the endless 

 varieties of the domestic Pigeon have descended, is a resident in the British Islands; 

 and there is much evidence to prove that its numbers are increased in autumn 



